Increasing the operational efficiency of a commercial laundry : layout optimization and process automation

Abstract

Commercial laundries typically are required to address significant variability and complexity in process inputs, such as size, material, and colour of the items of fabric to be washed; the identification of pre-existing defects in the items; complex and variable routing of the items during the laundry process; variable drying times; sorting issues due to different wash cycle requirements; item storage; and the organisation of item despatch to different geographical areas. Due to these problems, operations in commercial laundries are rarely optimized, and generally do not apply automation. In this work, we study the operations in a commercial laundry, with the aim of optimizing the process and the factory layout to achieve a five day (i.e. one week) turnaround time of items being processed by the company. We focus on one class of items (quilts) during the peak laundry period for this item (Summer). We have developed a detailed simulation of the laundry operations, and use this program to optimize specific parameters of the factory, such as the floor layout, the number of washing machines, and the sorting and tracking methodologies, based on typical work volumes, with the aim of achieving the required turnaround times for all items to be processed. In the second part of our work we present the conceptual design of a system that improves and/or automates the transport, tracking, washing, drying and sorting of the quilts in the presence of high process variability, and taking into account the highly deformable nature of the items and the space limitations.